Pilots plan to protest today on outsourcing | Business | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
In a conference call with analysts last month to discuss quarterly earnings, United CEO Jeff Smisek said the Continental rule limiting outsourcing to 50-seat jets was hurting the merged company.
"We have been hampered and competitively disadvantaged," he said.
Large airlines hire regional carriers to fly to some of the smaller markets they serve because of cheaper labor costs, among other reasons.
I find this comment interesting. He made the same comments about the pre-merged Continental. However, as Jeff pointed out earlier this year, from 2000-2009, CAL lost $1 billion. That's $1 billion OVER A 10 YEAR PERIOD while solely having a max of 50-seat small-jets. Now, no loss of money is a good thing I admit. However, if you compare that to the other legacy carriers, CAL lost the least amount of money over that same period while those other carriers HAD 70-seat small jets. CAL was considered to be in good shape financially (this is not a CAL vs. UAL statement and is not aimed at UAL guys related to anything to do with JCBA or SLI).
So Jeff, I ask you, how exactly is the combined company at a competitive disadvantage FINANCIALLY because CAL has a scope clause that limits you to 50-seat jets for the feeders? CAL seemed to do OK before this merger with just 50-seaters.